Elephant House

The Elephant House is a café on George IV Bridge in Edinburgh, Scotland. The café labels itself as the “birthplace of Harry Potter” since this is one of the cafés where J.K. Rowling would write in the early days of Harry Potter creation. She would walk around Edinburgh with her baby, waiting for her to fall asleep so she could go to a café to write. One of the earliest interviews with J.K. Rowling was conducted in The Elephant House; you can watch the interview below.

The café sells merchandise including mugs, T-shirts, and badges. It also has a wall covered with newspaper articles and photos of J.K. Rowling, including one that is signed by the author herself.

In the Elephant House toilets, you can expect to see every inch from floor to ceiling covered with graffiti with thank you messages to J.K. Rowling and quotes from the Harry Potter books.

As mentioned on their website, “Ian Rankin, author of the bestselling Rebus novels, and Alexander McCall-Smith, author of The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency and other series of novels, have also frequented The Elephant House, as well as many others throughout the years.”

You can watch a short clip of the Elephant House from YouTube below.

If you ever find yourself in Edinburgh, we definitely recommend a visit, and make sure you take a decent pen for a trip to the toilets! You can find the Elephant House on Google Maps here.